English ______
6th grade
Mr. Kowalick ______
______
CommonCoreState Standards – Literature, Writing, Listening & Speaking
Close Reading & Plot Analysis: After reading Chapters 2-4, answer each question by writing
complete and correct sentences. Be prepared to share your responses and support your opinions
by citing textual evidence.(CCSS Listening & Speaking 6.1 - 6.4; 6.6 / CCSS Language 6.2 – 6.5)
Chapter 2(For questions that ask you to “list” do not write a complete sentence; just the answer.)
1.What is the title of chapter 2? ______
2.How is the title important to the plot of chapter 2?______
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(CCSS Reading 6.1, 6.2, 6.5; Writing 6.1, 6.4; Language 6.4, 6.5)
3.Define mastodon (Before you choose a definition, see how the word is used in context in the story):
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(CCSS Reading 6.4; Language 6.5)
4.Why does the narrator call the backyard of Grim and Gram’s house a “so-called backyard?” Remember to cite evidence from the paragraph to support your response.
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(CCSS Reading 6.1, 6.4, 6.5; Language 6.5)
5.What is Max’s first impression of Kevin’s mother? ______
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(CCSS Reading 6.1, 6.3, 6.4, 6.6)
6.Read the following citation from pg. 7:
“I’m thinking, no way, butthead, no way you’d know a female…”
Why is part of this citation in italics? ______
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(CCSS Reading 6.1, 6.4, 6.5)
7.The novel includes many sentence fragments. What is the author’s purposefor having the narrator use so many fragments?
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(CCSS Reading 6.2 – 6.6; Language 6.5)
8.Copy one of the fragments here: ______
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(CCSS Language 6.1e, 6.5)
9.What would have to be added to the above fragment to make it a complete sentence? (dependent clause, independent clause, punctuation, etc? ______
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(CCSS Language 6.1e, 6.5)
10. Why did Gwen look so familiar to Max? ______
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(CCSS Reading 6.1, 6.3, 6.5)
11. Who are “the beards” to which Kevin refers on page 7? Be specific. ______
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(CCSS Reading 6.1, 6.4, 6.5; Language 6.4- 6.5)
12. Review the first half of page 8. Find the idiom and copy the citation in which it appears:
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(CCSS Reading 6.1; Language 6.5)
13. What weird thing did Kevin say to Max upon seeing him? (page 8)
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(CCSS Reading 6.1)
14. What action does Max take at the very end of Chapter 2?______
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(CCSS Reading 6.1, 6.3)
15. What is another meaning of “down under” outside the context of the story? You might want to search the phrase using a search engine like Google, Yahoo. (place the phrase in quotation marks when you search).
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(CCSS Informational Reading 6.7; Language 6.4)
Chapter 3
16. Look at the title of Chapter 3. How does the title relate to the plot of the chapter? ______
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(CCSS Reading6.1, 6.2, 6.5; Writing 6.1, 6.4; Language 6.4, 6.5)
17.What simile does Max use on the bottom half of page 12 to describe the plastic bird?(Copy the entire citation sentence.)
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(CCSS Reading 6.1, 6.4, 6.5; Language 6.5)
18.The chapter’s context clues tell you what an ornithopter is. (a) What does the prefix “ornith” mean? (b) What does the suffix “opter”mean? (c) What is an ornithopter?
(a)______
(b)______
(c)______
(CCSS Reading 6.4; Language 6.4a)
19. What two things in this chapter are represented by the title? Write the twoone-word answers only.(a)______(b) ______
(CCSS Reading 6.2, 6.3,6.5; Language 6.5)
20. Notice that the author lowercases “freak” in Chap. 3, but has it capitalized in Chap. 4. Explain the difference. Be specific.
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(CCSS Informational Reading 6.5, 6.7; Writing 6.1; Language 6.2, 6.3)
Chapter 4
21. Describe the change that has occurred between Max and Kevin between Chaps. 3 and 4?
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(CCSS Reading 6.3, 6.5)
22. What is a “sobriquet” (in context)? ______
(CCSS Language 6.4, 6.5)
23. (a) Had you already (before this point in the novel) figured out for yourself why Max’s grandfather was “Grim?” ______(b) If you answered “yes”, what reason(s) do you have for this assertion? Summarize your evidence; don’t use citations.
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(CCSS Reading 6.1, 6.4, 6.6; Language 6.4, 6.5)
24. What does “postulated” mean (in context)? ______
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(CCSS Reading 6.4; Language 6.4, 6.5)
25. What does Freak mean when he says, “Television is the opiate of the massives”?
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(CCSS Reading 6.4; Language 6.4, 6.5)
26. Allusions are references to a well-known place, event, person, work of art, or other work of literature. On pg. 19Freak says, “The Fair Gwen; I gotta beam out of here.” To what famous television show is he alluding? (You can get help from an adult on this one.)
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(CCSS Reading 6.4; Language 6.4c, 6.5)